The best birthday ever
by KawaiiKitsuneGirl
Summary: It's Naruto's birthday, but all of his friends are missing. What could they possibly be doing?


The best birthday ever

Naruto sighed, and his hair fell down into his eyes.

He growled softly, cursing kami once again, and impatiently tossed it back, missing his hitai-aite and wondering just what on earth Kakashi had done with it.

Team 7 had been trying to catch Tora (that flipping neko! He swore that…that _bakemono_ ran away just so it could claw him up…at least if it scratched Sasuke-teme there would be a point to these missions) and his hitai-aite had been scratched, the sharp claw carving straight through the strip of material that held it on. Kakashi had offered to repair it, but that was days ago!

Naruto wanted it back, back now.

Demo Kakashi was not one to be found easily. Not at all. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, all of the other people he hung around with had disappeared. Sakura, Sasuke, Chouji, Kiba, Shikamaru…even Teuchi and Ayame had closed their ramen stand for the day for some reason or other.

To put it simply, the blonde was feeling a little bit lonely.

Naruto closed his eyes and leaned out a bit.

 _Tou-san…what do I do?_

* * *

"Okay then. Minna, jobs," Kakashi hissed at the group, silver hair stuck up even more than normal in stress.

"Hinata, Shino and Chouji, the deserts including the cake. Ino, Neji, Kiba and Tenten, decorations. Sasuke- no wait, that's a bad idea… Shikamaru, Ayame and Sakura on presents from all of us. Kankuro, Teuchi and Sasuke on food, and Lee and Temari on balloons," Kakashi read out, the list in his hand having been planned carefully earlier.

Everyone nodded in affirmation.

"Meet here with everything you need in 3 hours," Kakashi decided, snagging Iruka's hand as he put down the list.

"Sensei, what are you and Iruka doing?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, you're not allowed to just go and have fun with Iruka whilst we do all of the work!" Kiba yelled, causing Iruka to blush, and step towards Kiba.

"Kiba-kun, we are not going to sit around and do nothing-I mean it Kakashi" he called to his lover "We are going to lay the trail to get Naruto to come here at the right time,"

Kiba looked embarrassed. "Sorry sensei,"

Kakashi eye-smiled, and strolled off. Kiba looked at the retreating figure with narrowed eyes.

"…He's totally going to sit around and do nothing…and like it or not, so will Iruka-sensei,"

* * *

Outside on the training grounds, Naruto had no idea what was going on.

"Why have they all abandoned me, even ero-sennin?" he asked the empty air, reaching a hand up to the sky as he did so.

"Do they all.." _hate me, tou-san?_

* * *

Hinata brushed her hair out of her eyes again with a quick flourish of a floury hand. It fell behind her ear, and she quickly went back to kneading the dough that they were making for a pastry sort of desert that was on the list. Chouji was working beside her; friendly grin and deft hands making all kind of deserts in a way that only the Akimichi could.

Hinata paused briefly to check on Shino-kun, who stood behind her. He was also working fast with a chocolate chip batter (according to Jiraiya, one of Naruto's weaknesses was chocolate which explained the amount of chocolate desserts on the food list. Not that Hinata was complaining, she was happy to do anything to make her crush happy).

They had bright orange icing to cover the cake, which needed no explanation, and Jiraiya had given them candles earlier on that apparently he had made (although Kiba thought that they were shop bought because of the seals on the sides). They were joke candles, in that you could program a person's chakra into them and every time they came near, the candles would relight.

Naruto's chakra was also apparently coded in, although no one had any idea of how he had persuaded Naruto to do that without noticing…but then again, no one thought it would be hard to convince the boy that they were something like another chakra exercise.

Just another thing she found lovable about Naruto-kun; he was very trusting (and gullible).

* * *

Temari walked down the road in huge, hurried strides, dragging the annoying boy who wouldn't stop sputtering things about his 'Gai-sensei' and 'youth!'

It had been about five minutes since they had left Kakashi and the others, and she was already pulling him by the ear to make him shut up.

The blonde haired girl twitched. The things she did to make her brother and his friends happy.

* * *

"Is there any hair grips in here?" Sakura called out to her companions as she examined the list of presents that they had to try and find.

They were rather bizarre, obscure presents like '500g of Fairtrade chocolate', or 'glittery orange things (preferably bright' or even things like 'anything with the number nine on' and 'food related objects'. It made Sakura sweatdrop when she realised that Naruto would probably love all of these presents.

For that matter, why wasn't Hinata sent with them? She could find these things more easily than them, surely…

Sakura sighed as Shikamaru shook his head in response to her question. No hair grips. Damn (although why they were on the list was still, and would forever be, a mystery to her. Really, what was Naruto going to do with them?).

Time for the next shop then. Two items on the list checked off… and 2 hours left to meet up.

* * *

Teuchi examined the shelves carefully. Five more bits of food left to gather.

He was sure that there was a mistake on their shopping list though.

Was there really a product that sold chocolate on pizza? Was that essential to the party? The man couldn't see how essential this could be for the life of him. Wouldn't Naruto-kun prefer ramen, ramen and only ramen?

Straightening up from his crouched position where he had been checking the bottom shelves, Teuchi crashed into something hard and pointy.

"Ow," he exclaimed, reaching up and rubbing his head, and turning to smile painfully at whatever he'd bumped into.

"Teuchi-san? What are you doing?" the person that he'd bumped into questioned.

"Hokage-sama! Gomenasai!… I'm looking for pizza," he answered, grateful for some help.

"… do you normally find it in the underwear isle?" Sarutobi replied with a nod towards a big sign that said in big writing 'Underwear section'.

Teuchi blinked, rubbed his eyes and looked again. There it was, still unmoved, showing the man where he was.

Had that always been there?

"Oh… I was busy keeping an eye on the younger ones…, I guess I didn't notice" the chef excused himself.

"Really? Where are they?" he asked curiously.

Teuchi laughed humorously, eyes crinkling happily.

"They are just there," he said and pointed to where Sasuke and Kankuro stood, true to his word, even though they both stared straight ahead, away from the other with blank stares. Teuchi sweat dropped at the sight.

"…They've been like that since the start…"

* * *

Tenten and Neji worked hard as they stood close together by the table, paper strips quickly forming a paper chain under their fast moving fingers.

Behind them stood Ino who was carefully pinning ribbons to the walls in a multitude of colours. Neji glanced back at her, seeing the sight of her tongue poking out as Ino concentrated.

Looking to his left, Neji stopped his chain and rolled his eyes at the annoying boy that had been lumped with them.

"Kiba, please just sit to the side," Neji almost pleaded as he saw a far too familiar sight; Kiba tangled in many colours of ribbon.

"I- will- escape!" he grunted in return.

So much for pretty decorations.

* * *

Naruto blew hard at a leaf that was floating in the air just above his face, watching as it rose, and fell, rose and fell, rose…nope, just fell.

He ran a hand through his disgruntled hair, finally mustering the energy to sit up.

If there was no one around today, he could just practice on the field.

It wasn't like today was special or anything…

* * *

"Everyone in position?" Kakashi whispered, his voice carrying through the empty apartment.

It was all a bit worrying actually…he and Iruka had come to persuade Naruto to go training with a new set of jutsu scrolls Iruka had dug up, but Naruto hadn't been there when they arrived.

"Hey guys…does anyone actually know where Naruto is?" Kakashi finally decided to question out loud.

Silence fell on the group as they all turned to one another with quizzical expressions on their faces.

No-one had the slightest clue.

"Seriously!?" Iruka yelled.

* * *

"Rasengen!" Naruto shouted, drawing up the power, rotating it and…

A large spiral cut into the tree, a gash going about halfway through the tree appearing.

"Shikusho…" the boy muttered, sliding down to the base of the tree in exhaustion and unhappiness.

* * *

Iruka was the one who found him first, curled up against the base of the tree.

"Naruto…" he whispered softly, shaking his shoulder.

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto answered groggily, tear tracks still marked on his whiskered cheeks.

"Yes, it's me Naruto…I've got something for you," Iruka smiled gently, thumbing away the stains and pulling him to his feet. "It's just this way, okay?"

* * *

"They're coming!"

"Quick, hide!"

* * *

Naruto entered his apartment in confusion, wondering why Iruka-sensei had lead him back there.

"Iruka-sensei?" he called out, turning back towards the door where he had just walked through, only to find it ominously closed; the apartment turning pitch black as a rustling noise came from the kitchen.

Naruto gulped loudly, then drew out a kunai and stepped towards it. "Hello?" he called out nervously, taking another step.

No reply came, so Naruto hesitantly stepped forward again.

And again.

And again.

A fifth step was made, and Naruto reached out to flick on the light switch, readying his weapon as he did so, but suddenly a blinding flash of light came from nowhere, and something settled into his hair with a loud bang.

Shrieking in surprise, the blonde bashed the lights on and saw that some sort of bomb had exploded all over his apartment.

Then he saw the banners that read 'Happy Birthday Naruto!' and his lip started to tremble a little.

Then he turned around and came face to face with all of his friends, and he grinned so wide it almost hurt.

"Happy birthday Naruto-kun!" The boy heard as he took in the sight; presents in a heap in the corner, banners everywhere, glitter somehow covering all the surface he could see (and that included himself), streamers hanging prettily from the wall…wait what?

"Hey guys…what happened to those streamers?" Naruto asked pointing towards a set of streamers that appeared to have been thrown onto the wall instead of hung like every other set in the room.

Ino sweatdropped. "I told you he would notice, Kiba!"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault the streamers hate me!" Kiba retorted, instantly defensive.

"But it was your fault that you didn't let me put them up again!" Ino argued, and the whole orderly party went up in smoke, dissolving into the chaos that Naruto was more comfortable with- the sort that meant he was amongst friends.

For the first time in his life, he had a birthday party. For the first time in his life he had presents. For the first time in his life… _he had friends to celebrate with._

Naruto grinned wider and wider, and tears started to fall softly down his cheeks as he did so.

"Hey, hey Naruto. There's no need to cry, mendokuse," Shikamaru said, almost worriedly, as he noticed Naruto crying in the middle of it all.

"It's okay Shika. I'm just really happy, that's all," Naruto answered emotionally.

He debated with himself for a moment, then stepped forwards and hugged the boy.

Naruto's eyes went wide for a moment, then he smiled and hugged Shikamaru back.

This was the best birthday ever.

* * *

Hi guys! Okay, I know, I know, I'm the evilest person alive and I haven't posted anything in months (sorry to everyone who reads Kami no Hoshi…I might get a chapter up soon in honour of Naruto's birthday though).

I did just realise that it was the 10th of October tomorrow, and I missed the FMA anniversary on the 3rd so I thought I'd write something for once….even though I stole the preparation scenes from KnH because I really loved that chapter!


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